I can understand Bryan wanting you to do that. Though I admire your honesty, I sort of cringed when I read it, thinking yikes, that may be just too much information. I have been in the same boat, without red mittens, but even so I sort of flinched when I read your public disclosure and thought no -- you should keep that particular information private,for you and Bryan, and also, for Zoey, and maybe assorted inlaws and other relatives who read your wonderful blog.Not that you should be ashamed of anything you did when you were 20 -- it's just private. That's all.

Anon @ 7:29: After Bryan asked me to take it down I went into a bit of a shame spiral. I was trying to be all strong and feminist about making it public, no shame, hear me roar, blah blah. But when he asked me to take it down I realized that there is shame in it, both public and admittedly private, no matter how liberal I am. And that's just me, not my family, who also deserves their privacy.*sigh*xo,S

I totally and completely understand, as my feelings on this issue have all over the map. At times I have also felt defiant -- like hey, this happens to us women (with a little help from men, of course) so why should we keep quiet and sweep it under the rug? Why should we feel ashamed? But at other times, I do feel ashamed, like I should have known better; I should have made better decisions at the time. I don't know. It's funny we're having this conversation on the back end of a totally humorous post about something else entirely. Please keep writing your blog -- I look forward to it every single day.

Hi, I'm Susannah and I love shiny things, swimming, the smell of fresh cut grass, orange blossoms and horse shit. The feel of my children's eyelashes on my cheek is a live virus that grows in me, multiplies and sustains. I will never understand Amish Friendship Bread.

I write for love but money works, too. Email me for more info, or just to say hello.
susannah.ink@gmail.com